Silver Bullet
by peregrinepandora
Summary: One-shot. "He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf." Remus walks, and remembers. Post-OotP.


Silver Bullet

* * *

Remus took long walks in Muggle clothes. Grimmauld Place met a dark, quiet street about a block down, where houses were separated by little plots of cut grass, and trees, and flowers that grew in boxes at the windows. In the cool evenings, in old tweed trousers and a tattered gray sweater, in the faint light of the streetlamps a block over, it was easy to forget about Sirius. Then the wind would blow.

* * *

He had turned around, slowly, to meet Sirius' eyes. The whole of his body tingled. He found himself in that place where he no longer felt the pull of the moon.

"Merlin, Moony. You got old."

His lips turned up, and he allowed himself a deprecating chuckle. "Have you seen a mirror?"

* * *

Remus always turned around at the end of the block. Still in the distance, he knew, was a quaint little house, with white shutters and a fence with a base obscured by the twisting stems of tulips. When he passed that house—though he rarely did, from time to time, after the full moon, he treated himself—he found he could almost pretend it was theirs.

His feet shuffled briskly and he shoved his frigid fingers into his pockets. The Order had learned not to ask where he was going.

* * *

Dumbledore's definition of "lying low at Remus's" had not been well detailed, and Sirius had been more than obliged to make certain assumptions. One, that the Headmaster had no jurisdiction over the lamp lit bedroom at the end of the corridor. And two, that, had he such power, he wouldn't much care.

Sirius had often joked that having a boyfriend with a "time of the month," as it were, nearly made him straight. But the joke ended there, and merged with a truly heartfelt confession.

"The wolf doesn't scare me, Moony. I know who you are."

* * *

Remus dug his feet into the pavement in front of the white picket fence. The moon was waning, and not nearly fast enough. His nose still picked up the faintest scents on the breeze, and the fresh cuts on his body had just barely coagulated. Worst of all, he could still feel the blood thirst, the nature of the wolf, somewhere inside.

He missed having someone to remind him of the man.

* * *

He woke up with putrid air settling on his nose, a big, hairy, heavy thing resting on his chest.

"Get off, Padfoot," he said quietly, and Sirius transformed beside him, a trio of sad little cuts lining his cheek. "Merlin, look at that."

"'S not bad," Sirius muttered, wincing as Remus' hand fell lightly on the wounds.

"'He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf.'"

Sirius pulled Remus' hand from his face. "Bloody hell, Moony, look at me. If I'm not mad, I don't know what else is."

* * *

It had gotten cold, bitterly so, at least in his mind, as he tread over the dew-damp streets. He paused for a moment in a little circle of thin golden light, his shadow spread across the narrow road. There was a dog barking in the distance.

"Harry, he's gone." His own voice felt distant, his mind fogged by fear and anguish. He knew he had said something more, and he knew his face was slack and void, missing the outward expression of the crushing in his chest.

Harry looked like he was flailing in water, his movements liquid smooth and sluggish. Remus knew Harry only looked like that, that in reality, when the cloudy veil in front of him was removed, the black haired boy would be back on land.

Though against his better judgment—he didn't think about that then, judgment, just Sirius—his eyes wandered to the dark curtain which had swallowed his friend.

An imaginary wind fluttered on the veil. He knew it wasn't there, but it still made him shiver.

"There's nothing you can do," he said, more to himself than to Harry.

* * *

It was raining by the time he turned around.

* * *

Author's Note:

"He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf" comes to you from Shakespeare's King Lear (III; vi: 19). I've never done Sirius/Remus before, and as it turns out it's harder than it looks. Hope this came off well. Comments and criticisms are very much appreciated.


End file.
